Ex-Leinster and Harlequins fly-half Andrew Dunne has hit out at the lack of officiating around skewed scrum feeds and has pleaded for change.
The scrum has been a hot topic this week after South Africa demolished Ireland in the set-piece en route to claiming a 24-13 victory at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
The Springboks dominated the set-piece, eking out penalties at will with both Irish loosehead props, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy, sin-binned for repeated infringements in the scrum.
South Africa was also awarded a penalty try after Rassie Erasmus replaced both of his starting props moments before the final two scrums of the first half.
Springbok beasts are unskilled
Ex-Leinster head coach Matt Williams has since bemoaned the influence the set-piece had on the fixture, stating: “The scrum is there to restart play, that’s what it says in the lawbook, it was never meant to dominate the game.”
While former fly-half Dunne believes that if referees officiated the scrum correctly, it would not be as influential in games and teams like South Africa would have to pick more skilled props.
World Rugby law 19.15f states: “When both sides are square, stable and stationary, the scrum-half throws in the ball: Straight. The scrum-half may align their shoulder on the middle line of the scrum, thereby standing a shoulder-width closer to their side of the scrum.”
Dunne has taken issue with the fact that officials don’t penalise scrum-halves for skew feeds and if they started to do so, he believes that ‘beasts’ like Thomas du Toit and Wilco Louw – who tip the scales over 140kgs – would need to add more to their game.
“Why is nobody challenging World Rugby about the feed into scrums?” Dunne said on the Off the Ball Rugby podcast.
“It’s literally the least refereed part of the game. If you go one degree crooked at a lineout, one degree, it’s called.
“But I’m watching every scrum-half, not just Cobus Reinach, every Irish scrum-half, every French scrum-half, do it. They used to square up when they put the ball into the scrum; they don’t even do it anymore. They diagonally face the number eight and roll it into the number eight’s feet.
Matt Williams: Springboks performance was ‘masterful’ but World Rugby must depower the scrum
“That accentuates what South Africa can do. They don’t have to hook, they literally don’t have to hook the ball back. They can have two beasts at 146kgs who can’t catch, pass or run, but are able to just destroy scrums.
“You start putting in an actual square feed and you’re going to have to pick props who can move around the field a bit more. There’s so much that annoys me about the World Rugby refereeing because they’re so pernickety about every area, like the tackle height.
“It’s still there. It’s a cast-iron rule you meant to put the ball in the square into every scrum. It’s completely and utterly overlooked in every international, and then they go on about what a problem the scrum is. How about referee the first part of it?”
France moves to stamp out skew feeds
While crooked scrum feeds usually go unsanctioned, the French have moved to stamp it out of their club game. Ahead of the 2025/26 season, the LNR (the governing body of the Top 14 and PRO D2) issued officiating guidelines with the aim of “restoring fairness” and “making refereeing decisions clearer”.
Included in the guidelines was a stricter focus on how scrum-halves feed the ball into the scrum, allowing for a fairer contest.
“Everyone agrees that there was a shift in the way scrum feeds were being handled. Even the staff acknowledges it,” head of referees for the Top 14 and PRO D2 Mathieu Raynal explained in an interview with RugbyRama.
“We were letting shady feeds go through, and it lacked fairness. This season, we decided to be more rigorous. Everyone is aware of it, referees and staff, and everyone has validated this desire to be stricter.
“It’s not that we’re going to whistle everything at once, but if we start sanctioning regularly, the teams will adapt, especially since the scrum coaches will insist on it in training. We’re not going to quibble over details, but rather restore fairness. It’s not the referee alone who decides, it’s a global consensus.”